


Healing

by dameronbarnes



Category: The Martian (2015), The Martian - Andy Weir
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mentions of scars and flashbacks, slightly PTSD Mark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-21
Updated: 2015-10-21
Packaged: 2018-04-27 12:06:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5047909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dameronbarnes/pseuds/dameronbarnes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A year and a half on Mars can leave you with quite a few bumps and bruises, but Chris doesn't mind at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Healing

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a prompt I saw on Tumblr.  
> This is also my first fic! I hope you enjoy and any tips or comments would be great, thanks :)

Mark Watney stretched backwards over the couch he was sharing with Chris in the Hermes. Unlike Chris, who was scribbling some notes on a pad of paper, his mind was wandering as he looked out of the large window in front of them into the blackness of space. 

"Can you stop now, you've been writing God knows what for hours," Watney complained. 

Beck glanced at him and raised one of his eyebrows, "I'm sorry, mister impatient, do you want to study Chemolithitrophic detection?" 

"Ugh," Mark groaned, while flopping down onto Chris's lap and conveniently blocking the doctor's view of his work. 

"I have better ideas of what you and me could be doing right now," Mark said, waggling his eyebrows suggestively up at Chris. Chris sighed and moved his work out from underneath Mark's head.

"Mark you're still recovering, you need to take it easy. We can't do anything right now, I don't want to hurt your ribs even more."

Watney turned his body towards Chris so he was now looking at his stomach. "I know. Broken ribs suck," Watney pouted. 

Chris looked down at him and smiled, using his hand to push back the hair from Mark's forehead. The two stayed like that for a few moments, Watney peacefully resting in Chris's lap while Chris took to playing with a bit of Watney's hair while looking out of the window in front of them.

Chris looked back down at Watney to see that his eyes had closed and he had a dreamy smile on his face. His little head massage was doing wonders for Mark, who sighed contently. Then, while looking down, Chris noticed something. 

"Wait, what's this?" He asked as he slowly tried to lift Mark's shirt up. 

"Huh?" Watney said, eyes opening to look down at his exposed stomach, where his shirt had bunched up from moving around. He was met with numerous staple marks and a jagged, healed scar. A wave of nausea passed over him as he recalled the time he got that scar. The antenna that had impaled him through his suit on Sol 6. It felt so long ago, but looking at the wound he could almost feel the rapid Martian winds throwing him around. 

"I-It's nothing," Mark stuttered, pulling the hem of his shirt back down. The last thing he needed was to feel shitty about all of the scars he had acquired during his stay on Mars. He didn't even want to think about the black and blue bruises covering his upper body where he had broken three of his ribs. His whole appearance had improved considerably over the course of the month he'd been on the Hermes after the rescue, but he was still scrawnier than he'd like to be. Let's just say Mark didn't think the best of himself at the moment. 

"Watney, look at me. Hey. Mark. Are you ok?" Chris asked. Mark looked to see the concern in Beck's eyes and sat up, grunting as he did so. 

"It's the scar I got from the antenna back on the day of the storm," he said, looking at the seams in the couch. "It was pretty nasty I'm not going to lie, but nothing a couple of staples and the atmosphere of impending death can't fix." 

He swallowed thickly, and looked up at Chris, who seemed to be waiting for him to continue. So he did. 

"-and this one was when I blew myself up for the first time, and this big one over here was when the rover tipped on my way to Schiaparelli," Mark explained as he lifted up his shirt a bit more and pointed to various spots on his torso. 

"And this one was-" Mark's voice cracked. He was currently pointing to the scar that he received a few days after his potatoes had frozen over. One of the worst days on that damned planet. One of the days he was sure he was going to die. How could he not be? One of his biggest hopes, gone in an instant as the hab collapsed. He could still see the frost, the horrible frost caked over his precious potatoes. 

More painful memories began to flood back as Watney slowly put his shirt back down, making sure it covered his thin frame completely. He shook his head, trying to block out the memories. He then felt a hand on his knee and looked at Chris, who had stayed silent the entire time, listening, and rubbing Watney's leg comfortingly. 

"I just-um, sorry," Mark said after the flashback was over, rubbing the back of his neck. Chris scooted closer to Mark and reached out to gently wipe the tears that Mark haven't even noticed were silently rolling down his face. 

"It's ok," he said quietly. "You're ok, and we're ok, and I love you, you know. A lot. Scars and all." Chris paused to look Watney in the eyes. 

"It's going to take a while for you to be ok with all of the bruising, and the scarring, but I'll be right here. Every step of the way. You can always talk to me," he said with a small smile. "Just as long as it's not about your balls freezing because yes I watched that log you made, and no, I don't need to hear about that type of experience." 

Watney chucked while wiping some more tears that were starting to gather in his eyes. He sniffled and looked at Chris, on the verge of full out crying. "Thank you." 

Chris smiled at him again and rubbed the knee that his hand was still on. "Anything for you."

And that's when Mark started to cry. Beck shifted his body so he was more comfortable and wrapped his arms around Mark's shoulders. Responding almost immediately, Mark put his arms around Chris's waist and held on tightly as he cried. He sure had missed this whole human contact thing back on Mars. What Beck had said was exactly what he needed to hear. 

As Mark began to stop crying, Chris moved their bodies until they were lying down on the couch facing each other. Then, to Watney's surprise, Chris lowered himself until he was just above his waistline. Mark looked down to see that he was lifting up his shirt again, but this time, Chris began to kiss his scars. 

Small, gentle kisses were placed on each of his exposed scars, leaving Mark with a warm tingling feeling every time Chris would remove his lips and kiss another spot. When he finished, he came back up to face Watney, placed a warm hand on his waist, and kissed him straight on the mouth. Mark hummed into the kiss as his eyes shut, and moved one of his hands to rest it on the side of Chris's face. 

They kissed up until Mark felt a dull throbbing begin on the bruising around his ribs. Well, looks like the pain meds wore off. Mark broke the kiss and just stared into the beautiful blue of Chris's eyes. 

"I hate to ruin the moment, but my ribs are stating to hurt again," he said. 

Chris smiled and they both sat up. "Cmon, let's get you some medicine so we can continue this." Chris said, standing up and offering Mark his hand. 

Mark took the hand gladly and stood up, wobbling slightly. 

"Can't wait," he smiled.


End file.
